Jack+&+Jen's+Booktalks


 * Tween Media Literacy: BOOKTALK TITLES & TECHNIQUES**

Titles discussed in tonight’s class…

**//Thought-Provoking Questions//**

//My Heartbeat// by Garret Freymann-Weyr. Houghton-Mifflin, 2002. 154 p. As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.(CIP)

//Dr. Franklin’s Island// by Ann Halam. Dell Laurel-Leaf, 2002. 245 p. When their plane crashes over the Pacific Ocean, three science students are left stranded on a tropical island and then imprisoned by a doctor who is performing horrifying experiments on humans involving the transfer of animal genes. (CIP)

//Left for Dead: a young man’s search for justice for the USS Indianapolis// by Pete Nelson. Delacorte, 2002. 203 p. Recalls the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis at the end of World War II, the Navy cover-up and unfair court martial of the ship's captain, and how a young boy helped the survivors set the record straight fifty-five years later. (CIP)

**//Character Driven//**

//I am the Messenger// by Marcus Zuzak. Knopf, 2006. 357 p. After capturing a bank robber, nineteen-year-old cab driver Ed Kennedy begins receiving mysterious messages that direct him to addresses where people need help, and he begins getting over his lifelong feeling of worthlessness. (CIP)

//Tenderness// by Robert Cormier. Delacorte, 1997. 240 p.  A psychological thriller told from the points of view of a teenage serial killer and the runaway girl who falls in love with him. (CIP) **//Show & Tell//** //Postsecret// by Frank Warren. ReganBooks, 2005. 276p. Frank Warren presents some of the thousands of postcards he has received on which strangers confess their darkest secrets. (CIP) //Fairie-ality: the fashion collection from the House of Ellwand// by Eugenie Bird and David Ellwand. Candlewick, 2002. 99 p. Presents pages from the catalog of the top designer of couture and accessories for the fairy world, interspersed with descriptions of the events to which these feather and flower creations will be worn. (CIP)

**//Gross-Out//**

//Martyn Pig// by Kevin Brooks. Scholastic, 2002. 230 p. Martyn Pig's life goes from bad to worse when he accidentally kills his father, and he must choose whether to tell the police the truth about what happened and be suspected of murder, or he can get rid of the body and pretend nothing ever happened. (CIP)

//Elijah of Buxton// by Christopher Paul Curtis. Scholastic, 2007. 341 p. Eleven-year-old Elijah Freeman, the first free-born child in Buxton, Canada, which is a haven for slaves fleeing the American South in 1859, uses his wits and skills to try to bring to justice the lying preacher who has stolen money that was to be used to buy a family's freedom. (CIP) **//Humor//**

//Twelve// by Lauren Myracle. Dutton, 2007. 202 p. Winnie relates the events of her twelfth year and the many changes in her relationships and in her attitude toward growing up. (CIP)

//Flipped// by Wendelin Van Draanen. Knopf, 2001. 212 p. In alternating chapters, two teenagers describe how their feelings about themselves, each other, and their families have changed over the years. (CIP) **//Best When Read Aloud//** //The Realm of Possibility// by David Levithan. Knopf, 2004. 210 p. A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories. (CIP) //How it Happened in Peach Hill// by Marthe Jocelyn. Random House, 2007. 232 p. When fifteen-year-old Annie Grey and her "clairvoyant" mother arrive in Peach Hill, New York, in 1924, each finds a reason for wanting to finally settle down, but to reach their goals they will have to do some serious lying and Annie will have to stand up for herself. (CIP) //Shattering Glass// by Gail Giles. Roaring Brook, 2002. 224p. $16.95. Rob, the charismatic leader of the senior class, provokes unexpected violence when he turns the school nerd into Prince Charming. (CIP) **//Classic Cliffhangers//** //Neverwhere// by Neil Gaiman. Avon, 1997. 337 p. Richard Mayhew, a young businessman living in London, helps an injured girl and finds his life changed when he leaves reality and enters the city's underground world of sewers and abandoned subway stations--a world in which the girl he helped is someone of power and nobility. (CIP)

//Jade Green// by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Atheneum, 1999. 168 p. While living with her uncle in a house haunted by the ghost of a young woman, recently orphaned Judith Sparrow wonders if her one small transgression causes mysterious happenings. (CIP)

**//CIP=Cataloging in Publication Information, which is where all the summaries for these titles originate.//**